%0 Journal Article
%T Effects of isolation after sexual experience on anxiety-like, depressive-like behaviors and affective states in male rats
%A Fei Wen
%A Lin Xu
%J Chinese Science Bulletin
%@ 1861-9541
%D 2010
%I 
%R 10.1007/s11434-010-4223-z
%X Studies on social isolation have provided evidence for an enhanced anxiety-like phenotype, depressive-like symptoms and higher levels of 22-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs); whereas sexual experience could induce significant changes in affective states, decrease anxiety- and depressive-like responses. However, the behavioral and emotional alterations in male rats exposed to isolation after sexual experience remain poorly understood. Therefore, the present study examined anxiety- and depressive-like parameters, as well as USV emissions in male rats isolated for 1, 2, or 7 d following 1-week sexual (male-female paired housing) or social (male-male paired housing) interaction. Isolation for 1 d resulted in increased depressive-like symptoms, and 2-d isolation induced elevated anxiety-like behavior in sexually inexperienced rats, while rats with sexual experience exhibited comparable levels of emotionality at each isolation time. Moreover, isolated rats without sexual experience emitted less 22- and 50-kHz USVs, but sexually experienced rats exhibited similar affective states compared with control ones. These results suggested that prior sexual experience could have a modulatory effect on experimental rat emotional responses to isolation.
%K social isolation
%K sexual experience
%K anxiety-like
%K depressive-like
%K ultrasonic vocalization (USV)
%U http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11434-010-4223-z